blender

= Front-End Blender

== What is Blender?

Blender is like ant or make for the front-end. It aggregates and compresses CSS and/or JavaScript assets for a site into efficient, production-ready files.

== The Blendfile

The Blendfile, named Blendfile.yaml by default, is the configuration file that tells Blender which source files are combined into which output files. The file uses the YAML format. The output file is listed as hash key and source files are the hash values as an array. Here is a sample Blendfile:

Blendfile.yaml for www.boldpx.com

_behavior: _global-min.js: - ../_vendor/jquery/jquery.js - ../_vendor/shadowbox/src/js/adapter/shadowbox-jquery.js - ../_vendor/shadowbox/src/js/shadowbox.js - _global.js - _analytics.js - ../vendor/google-analytics/ga.js _style: _global: min.css: - ../../_vendor/shadowbox/src/css/shadowbox.css - typography.css - typography-print.css - colors.css - colors-print.css - layout-screen.css - layout-print.css

== Usage

Usage: blend [options] -h, --help Show this message -V, --version Prints Blender's version number -g, --generate Generate a stub Blendfile -f, --file FILE Use given Blendfile -r, --root ROOT Specify the path to the web root directory -t, --type TYPE Select file type to blend (css, js) -m, --min [MINIFIER] Select minifier to use (yui, none) -c, --cache-buster [BUSTER] Append cache busters to URLs in CSS, defaults to timestamps --force Force blending when source files aren't newer than output files --yui=YUIOPTS Pass arguments to YUI Compressor -d, --data EXPERIMENTAL Convert url(file.ext) to url(data:) in CSS files -z, --gzip EXPERIMENTAL Also create gzip output files

== Examples

In your site directory run 'blend' to minify CSS and JavaScript. blend

Other examples: blend --generate blend --yui='--preserve-semi' blend -t css blend -t css -d blend -f public/Blendfile.yaml

== Installation

To install the RubyGem, run the following at the command line (you may need to use a command such as su or sudo): gem install mime-types gem install colored gem install front-end-blender --source http://gems.github.com

If you're using Windows, you'll also need to run the following: gem install win32console

• Java v1.4 or greater is required, http://java.com/en/
• Ruby v1.8.6 or greater is required, http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/downloads/
• RubyGems v1.2 or greater is recommended, http://rubygems.org/read/chapter/3

== License

Copyright (c) 2008 Chris Griego (c) 2008 Blake Elshire

Blender is freely distributable under the terms of an MIT-style license. For details, see http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php